apple cons

[lu0s3r322]

ok so my parents are like 90% convinced that macs are better than pcs but still need that 10%. so could u guys reply to these bad things about macs? much appreciated.

i already factored out that the load of windows software is a big con but macs dont get viruses so those cancel each other

1. Apple computers are expensive

2. Apple upgrades OS's constantly and computers, wont that cost a lot of money?

3. If we buy the new iMac won't we have to buy an airport express to make it work with our wireless internet?

4. Wont their switch to Intel cause viruses to appear?

Thanks again

 

[PlaceofDis]

ok so my parents are like 90% convinced that macs are better than pcs but still need that 10%. so could u guys reply to these bad things about macs? much appreciated.

i already factored out that the load of windows software is a big con but macs dont get viruses so those cancel each other

1. Apple computers are expensive

2. Apple upgrades OS's constantly and computers, wont that cost a lot of money?

3. If we buy the new iMac won't we have to buy an airport express to make it work with our wireless internet?

4. Wont their switch to Intel cause viruses to appear?

Thanks again

1. similarly priced systems from other vendors cost the same if not more, Apple just doesn't have a bare bones cheap system and won't offer such crap anyways.

2. All companies upgrade their machines' specs all the time, no need to upgrade unless its needed, same apply's to the OS.

3. No any Linksys router will work with a Mac.

4. No, its the Software (OS) that gets viruses, and not the platform, the switch to Intel will have no factor in this, the code and OS X will just be as secure.

 

[portent]

There is a smaller selection of software on the Mac, especially when it comes to games. Often instead of 3-4 programs to do a given job, there will only be one or two.

3. No any Linksys router will work with a Mac.

Any 802.11b or 802.11g router should work with a Mac, so long as the Mac has an AirPort card. AirPort is just a name Apple came up with because 802.11 was too hard to remember. (This was before "wi-fi" was coined.)

 

[khisayruou]

Most wireless routers will work with the mac and pc. There are a handful, specifically older wireless routers that will not work with the mac (I remember older d-links being one of them). Just check with your wireless router to see if its compatible.

 

[Macaddicttt]

2. Apple upgrades OS's constantly and computers, wont that cost a lot of money?

Just because Apple updates its OS or computer line, it doesn't automatically make yours useless. Actually, one of the great things about Apple computers is their long life. My parent's computer is about six years old and it's still going strong. Sure, it's not the fastest computer out there, but it still does everything it did on the first day we had it (internet, word processing, etc.), plus more (OS X). You'd be hard pressed to find a Windows PC that was six years old and in such great shape.

 

[CanadaRAM]

There are plenty of people on eBay who are trying to con you on an Apple sale.

THe Powerbook G4 has to be the all-time #1 bogus auction item.

 

[khisayruou]

There are plenty of people on eBay who are trying to con you on an Apple sale.

THe Powerbook G4 has to be the all-time #1 bogus auction item.

I'm confused I don't this helps out the OP.

 

[adk]

I agree with everybody else about ugrades. If you don't need it, don't buy it. If OS10.5's major new feature is better support for video editing, I won't buy it, because I don't need that. Also, Up until last june I was using Pentium 2 with a 12gb hard drive and Windows 98. It still worked fine, so I had no reason to replace it (that is until I could afford a mac! that PC is now the world's largest paperweight).

 

[cgratti]

Once you go Mac, you never go back.....

 

[GorillaPaws]

One major problem with Macs (related to #2) is that they do have limited upgradeability (unless you get a Power Mac, and then your talking about the expensive end of the spectrum). So if you're always trying to stay on the cutting edge than you may find yourself purchasing hardware more frequently (I know many on this site have that problem). But PC users with the same compusion have the same problem (It's just worse for Mac fans cause the new stuff is oh-so-sexy).

Another is that you tend to become dependant on Apple much moreso than you would if you purchased hardware from Dell or whoever (kind of like being permanently affixed to the breast of your corporate mother). While this hasn't necessarily been such a bad thing since Apple has consistently done a great job of late, if things ever went downhill bigtime (like, God-forbid, if Jobs ever died), than you would be kind of screwed. But as Apple continues to integrate into the greater computing world out there (intel chips for example), this becomes less and less of an issue.

I think that in your case (unless you're a bigtime PC gamer) that a Mac is the way to go. The lack of malware vs. the lack of 3rd party apps is not necessarily a push IMHO. In the case of the malware, you're having to constantly run stuff in the background to keep that junk out, thereby constantly wasting computing resources and slowing your system down. That's a pretty huge negative! Whereas the lack of 3rd party apps is really only a problem in very specific, and typically unusual circumstances. My mom for example has to use a web-based version of her online medical billing service (she manages my dad's surgical practice), as there aren't available OSX apps for that fairly unique/specific task. Things that you're likely to be interested in doing will almost certainly be covered by at least one 3rd party app, and in many cases there are several to choose from (check out VersionTracker.com and you'll see what I mean). Also developers for the Mac tend to be more sensitive to the higher UI standards demanded by the Mac community. So instead of having hundreds of craptastic third party apps to sift through, you'll typically have only a few, well-designed ones to choose from (in some ways it's a belssing in disguise). That's not to say that the Mac commuity wouldn't love a greater variety of 3rd party apps, simply it's not a total negative.

Anyways, I encourage you to check out some of the switcher threads in the forums here, and you may get a good sense of why people love their Macs so much.

 

[iEdd]

Once you go Mac, you never go back.....

Isn't it "once you go mac, your computer isn't black", because it's all white and silver these days? Black would look awesome in polycarbonate though.

 

[California]

There are plenty of people on eBay who are trying to con you on an Apple sale.

THe Powerbook G4 has to be the all-time #1 bogus auction item.

I have no idea what this means or how it helps OP either.

Do you mean that people put up false auctions?

Or do you mean that the PB G4s on eBay are defective, overpriced or misrepresented somehow?

Crass generalization or have you some eBay discernment for us all, not just OP?

And what does this have to do with buying the first Mac, anyway?

 

[Kelmon]

1. Apple computers are expensive

It's somewhat subjective but I think some of the product lines are expensive. My personal preference is the PowerBook line since I want a powerful laptop for day-to-day work and OS X, so a PowerBook is the only system that will cut it for me. However, compared to Windows laptops that are available I think that the PowerBook line is expensive compared to what you can buy elsewhere. My father, for example, recently bought an AMD-based 17" laptop that has a really good feature set but costs about £500 less than a 17" PowerBook, although the software provided was a bit crap. Despite this I will definitely be buying another PowerBook (unless they go to hell in the Intel transition, which seems unlikely) since the overall experience is, for me, so much better. £500 isn't that much more for me to pay in order to get several years of trouble-free computing.

The above, these days, doesn't seem to apply to the other product lines since iMacs, Mac Mini's, etc seem pretty good value these days when compared to Windows systems.

2. Apple upgrades OS's constantly and computers, wont that cost a lot of money?

Yes, it is an additional cost but it depends on how you look at things. If you need to always have the best computer that Apple makes then the 6-monthly refreshes will be expensive. However, I doubt that you, or anyone else, buys a new computer that often so I don't believe that this will be an issue. The updates to the OS each (roughly) 18-months is a "good thing" as far as I am concerned since it means that you get great updates to your computing experience pretty frequently whereas Windows hasn't been updated in the past 4-years (and it shows). The Apple OS is pretty cheap compared to Windows and even more so if you qualify for a student discount.

3. If we buy the new iMac won't we have to buy an airport express to make it work with our wireless internet?

Not in my experience. While I bought an AirPort Extreme station with my PowerBook I can connect to any wireless network that I've come across while traveling without trouble. I know one network was powered by a Netgear router and I highly doubt that all the hotels and airports that I've passed through were running Apple hardware so you should be fine. This said I would always check the requirements of any hardware that you buy to ensure that it is Mac-compatible.

4. Wont their switch to Intel cause viruses to appear?

Possibly, but not as a direct result of the change in the processors. It may be that the change to Intel processors causes the Mac market share to increase more rapidly and therefore to catch the attention of the devious little bastards that make viruses. Whether they would be successful in creating an effective virus is open to debate. OS X is supposed to be much more secure, in terms of its design, when compared to Windows but I wouldn't take it as saying that OS X is immune to viruses.

I look on the subject of viruses with OS X and Windows in this fashion: if you use Windows then you are guaranteed to be susceptible to a virus today but with OS X you might be tomorrow. Personally, the potential of viruses sounds a heck of a lot better than the certainty of them.

Anyway, best of luck in making your decision. I switched just over 2-years ago and have no intention, at the moment, of going back, if that is of any help to you.